Industry Moves: Last.fm Taps Ex-Xbox Brand Manager For First Marketing VP

CBS (NYSE: CBS) has named former Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Xbox brand manager Orlena Yeung as Last.fm's first marketing VP - a post we reported the company would create last week. Yeung has already updated her LinkedIn profile, which shows she had worked for marketing agencies JDK and Farenheit 212 since leaving Microsoft in 2006 after five years. Yeung had helped develop the marketing strategy for MS' games console. Last.fm co-founder Felix Miller (via release) credits "her experience of combining start-up energy inside a major parent" - presumably equating Microsoft's games division with being a startup.

Yeung, who started yesterday, told me: "We have to articulate what our goals will be for the US market." Her campaign will be "something that could add value to the current community". Yeung will report to Miller and co-founder Martin Stiksel and will "work closely with" CBS Interactive EVP Patrick Keane. She will initially be based with the team in London for about six months, then returning to New York.

Her top priority is likely to be cross-promoting Last.fm across CBS' existing media brands, especially in the US. CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith told Staci last week the new hire would "plug them more into the CBS mainstream".

Smith: "It's our job, frankly, as a corporation, to make them more valid in the United States. The question is how do you blow it up and make it a major media brand in the United States?" That starts with "a lot more call-outs" on-air in May. Stiksel told me he wanted to get "even more of a presence in the most important internet market".

Related

CBS Working Last.fm Hard In US, Appointing Chief Marketer CBS Interactive's Quincy Smith On Re-Org: 'More CBS Corp. Firepower Focused On Interactive' London Mixer Multimedia Report: Q&A With Martin Stiksel, Last.fm Co-Founder Last.fm Gets Half Of Users Off-Site, Targets US Market